My journey into 'Pitdom' began after my Chihuahua Ricky and I were attacked on the 3rd of October, this year. Thus began my journey into total fear, confusion...and hatred for what a Pit Bull can do. And what disturbed me even more was how much I hated that Pit Bull for the horrendous suffering he caused my Ricky.
Ricky |
I felt consumed by this hatred in a way I have never felt before. Then I realized my hatred was spilling over through my fear onto all big dogs, but especially Pits and similar looking dogs. A couple of nights ago as I tried to go to sleep, I could not let go of the anger, so that I could sleep in peace. I kept re-living the attack over and over. I kept hearing Ricky scream in pain, I kept smelling the warm blood and smelling the Pit Bull's breath on my cheek as he bit me trying to rip Ricky back out of my arms, I kept seeing the fixed, glazed over blood-lust in his eyes. But mainly I kept seeing Ricky looking at me with agony in his eyes and beseechingly asking me for help when the Pit Bull kept ripping and tearing his flesh off and my feeling of absolute helplessness and powerlessness to stop the attack, to stop Ricky's pain.
I kept seeing myself being attacked again and again...but this time I had all sorts of weapons...first a knife, then a gun, then a break-stick. Sometimes Ricky was in the Pit's mouth, sometimes it was just me. Then I knew it was time to try to heal this rip in my life or it was going to destroy any happiness I could ever have. I prayed and asked for help to release the anger and the hatred... and the overwhelming fear.
After the pit bull attack |
I know animals are an extension of us humans and are dependent upon our goodwill in so many ways. I also know that sometimes this dependence we feel from the animal kingdom, especially our canine and feline friends, can go wrong. We can begin to idealize our part in these animal's lives to the point that we cannot separate idealization from logic, fact from fiction, truth from falsehoods, what we wish to be from what is. We become blind to the fact that an animal is still an animal and that genetics play a large part in WHO our animals really ARE at the basic root level and we forget that no matter how much we love them... they remain animals with a genetic makeup different from ours.
So with the anger and hatred still seething in me and tons of 'not wanting to' I began to watch the videos of attacks by Pit Bulls and I began to watch the videos of Pit Bulls that people have put up on YouTube of their pet Pit Bulls being the family dog. I saw the murderous fury in the attacking Pit Bulls and I saw the love from the family Pit Bulls toward their humans. And there was no doubt that they loved their humans. I watched videos of family Pit Bulls being loving towards their humans...and an instant later attacking one of the family members that it loves. All this was not unexpected to me. BUT what was unexpected by me was watching the confusion in its' eyes once an attacking Pit Bull calmed down. Absolute confusion. It had no clue that it had done something so horrendously savage.
This is when the anger and hatred in me for these pit bulls left me. They really are not to blame for doing what their genetics lead them to do. The ones to blame are the humans who wish upon them the ability to be something that they are not. It is not that attacking pit bulls have bad owners, though many do as is the case with pet owners of any animal, it has nothing to do with being mistreated... it is what they are. You cannot love out genetics that were created to attack and attack until either they or their chosen victim is dead. They are not lap dogs and never will be. Put all the tutus you want on them, it will not change their lethal genetic makeup. But what it will do is cause untold suffering to these dogs and it will lead to their injury and death by people trying to protect themselves, their loved ones and their pets, and rightly so - just as these humans would do in the event of an attacking bear or mountain lion who is out of its' territory and attempting to do what its' genetics lead it to do, namely to attack.
Now to the Pit Bull and Pit Mix breeds or lineages...My first encounter with a Pit Bull was in Georgia when one was at large (not a stray) and killed my sister's Shitzu, Gizzy. It was not reported and the hunters who owned the Pit Bull were not confronted. Then the second time the Pit Bull who was at large (not a stray but owned by the same hunters) that came onto my sister and brother-in-law's property and attacked my sister's 17 year old cat, China. My sister was not at home but my brother-in-law was and stood by helpless to stop the attack that in a mere minutes left China in shreds and an unrecognizable bloody mass in what she had always believed was her safe home to laze about in the sun. My brother-in-law got his gun and when he came back out with it, the Pit Bull owner pulled up and asked in sad hysterics 'You not gonna shoot my dog, are you man?' No my brother-in-law didn't shoot the Pit Bull and the man loaded up his blood-soaked dog into his truck. Leaving my brother-in-law in horror at what had just happened and wondering how the hell he was gonna tell my sister that her beloved cat was dead, not from natural causes after a life well-lived, but by a nightmare called a Pit Bull. He buried China before my sister came home because he didn't want her to see the condition China was in. And again the attack was not reported and the Pit Bull owner was not made to be accountable.
Several years later I moved to Florida where my sister and brother-in-law now lived. There were two chained Pit Bulls next door. One of them got off his chain all the time. One day my Chihuahua, Ricky, happened to cross paths with this Pit Bull. There was a chain-link fence around the Pit Bull's home and around my sister's home. But that did not stop this Pit Bull. I heard Ricky screaming and ran out the door with my sister and brother-in-law. The Pit Bull had Ricky. He 'de-gloved' Ricky's whole back-end. By this time the dog's owner was trying to get his dog to release Ricky. His wife was screaming at him that she had told him to get rid of 'those dogs.' A neighbor got to Ricky before I could and brought him to me. I could not tell just how bad his injuries were because there was so much blood. I held him under the faucet to wash away some of the blood to assess his injuries. They were horrific. I wrapped his back-end to try to stop the bleeding. The Pit Bull's owner came over and was crying and telling me how he will 'replace' Ricky if he dies 'with any dog' I chose. Right. Our beloved pets get murdered and they are just replaceable. I stayed by Ricky's side, tending his wounds and praying while he went through pain, shock and horrendous fevers...On the third day he looked at me and wagged his tail. I thought I was all cried-out but I wasn't. This time I cried because I knew he was going to make it. It took days and days before he could stand. His left hip still goes out on him and I have to massage it back into place. He also has the scars on either side of his hips and on his hind legs that are a testament to this attack. But did I ever once think that I should report this attack? No. Did I even once expect this vicious Pit Bull, that obviously cannot be controlled by his owner, to be put down? No. Did the owner keep this vicious Pit Bull? Yes. He continues to get loose and up until this last attack on Ricky, my sister would yell at him to go home.
After the attack on me and Ricky on October 3rd, my sister now knows to not do that and she also knows that her grandchildren are potentially in danger from this dog. Let's talk about the two attacks on my sister's pets by Pit Bulls owned by a hunter. Would this hunter tell you he loves his dogs? Absolutely. After all he allows them to run loose because when they are not running loose they live boxed in a prison with bars. Is he a responsible Pit Bull owner? Absolutely not. Does he respect other people, their pets and the law against unlawful trespass? Absolutely not. Should he lose all rights to own a killer dog? Absolutely.
Now, this Pit Bull owner loves his dogs, right? Yet he knowingly puts these dogs in danger of being shot by allowing them to run at large. Right? If he loves his dogs so much, why would he put them in danger? He puts them in danger because he knows most people love animals and do not wish them harm. Thus he does not feel he is putting his Pit Bulls in danger. So actually, he's not just putting his Pit Bulls in danger, he's putting all pets and other domestic animals in that area in danger. Does he care? No. The owner of the first Pit Bull that attacked Ricky...Would he answer yes if you asked him if he loves his dogs? Absolutely. But he keeps these dogs that he so loves on a chain the majority of their lives. Like slaves of the past or like the prisoners in the chain-gangs in the past, like the elephants and tigers and lions in circuses.
Were those slaves or those people on the chain-gangs and those exotic animals that live their lives within caged bars and in chains, happy? No. And neither are his dogs. He lives with these Pit Bulls in the city so of course he thinks he is doing the right thing by keeping them on chains. After all, he knows that they are not lap dogs. And he was horrified that the one Pit Bull attacked my Ricky. He tries to make sure that his beloved dogs do not get off chain, but being Pit Bulls, they will get off chain and they will get through a chain-link fence, and they will attack. Is it their fault that they do what their genetics tell them to do? No. For that is what they know.
The fault lays with a human being that is forcing these dogs to live an unnatural existence and then crying when they revert to what they are - dogs - with the genetic lineage to attack and not stop until the prey is dead. It does not matter that the prey may be a child. Dog science has proven that these dogs do not differentiate between animal prey and human prey, especially human prey that is small. These dogs do not need anything to 'set them off' - what sets them off is their genetics kicking in. When they attack, maul and kill the child who has been by their side since birth, it's not that they suddenly hate that child, it's because their prey drive was stronger than their love for their human. I have watched video after video and looked at picture after picture of these dogs during an attack, and after the prey-drive has abated.
During the attacks they would look like demonic hounds of hell, worse that anyone's nightmare; these pit bull attacks were the most horrific things I've ever witnessed, and that includes my many years as an ICU and ER nurse. Watching these videos and looking at these pictures of and after attacks is so not easy. After the attacks when the adrenaline dies down and their prey-drive is abated they are the saddest looking, most confused looking blood-covered creatures imaginable.
They have no clue what a nightmare they just caused. They have no clue why the humans are screaming at them. They have no clue why the humans have wounded them. They have no clue why they are being cruelly lassoed by AC and thrown in a cage in the back of a vehicle and are being driven away from the humans they love. Do not for a second think these dogs do not love, for they do and they do wish to make their human owners happy, but they cannot resist their genetics forever. No more than a Siberian Tiger can resist its' genetics. No more than the Bear can resist its' genetics.
Just like the Siberian Tiger and the Bear that loves their human masters but 'snaps' one day when their prey-drive kicks in, killing the person who loves them and whom they love, these dogs cannot resist their genetics when it kicks in and overrides whatever love they have for their human companions. And for humans to continue to torture these creatures by expecting them to be other than what they are is an inhumanity indeed.
And what is even more wrong for these Pit Bull genetic-lineage dogs, if they survive an assault after they attack, is that they all eventually end up in an animal shelter, and a great many are euthanized. Some live out their lives for years and years in unrelenting isolation with a 'bone' thrown to them here and there while they wait out the rest of their lives in confinement. This is how the bleeding heart animal lovers show their love for these poor dogs. Life at any cost, whether to the dog itself, or to the people and animals these dogs attack. There must be life for this sad dog, at any cost.
Not to even mention how many safe adoptable animals lose their lives or receive less than ideal treatment due to the over-abundance of Pit Bull types taking up limited shelter resources, leaving little for the rest of the animals. The bleeding heart animal rights crowd know it is wrong and to try to atone for that wrong, they push these creatures on an unsuspecting public through their unending attacks on anything or anyone contrary to their aberrant love and anyone or anything that sees how wrong they are.
They attack, smear, use the terms 'racist,' 'breedist,' 'unfair,' 'hatred,' 'ignorant.' - a never ending list of vicious descriptors. Meanwhile they totally dishonor these dogs by dressing them in tutus and push propaganda that has been proven false and while they take pictures of their babies with these poor dogs, being forced to portray a fantasy image about them, and more importantly, putting their children in harms way.
Their aberrant love for an animal outweighs their love and responsibility for and to their children. Knowing this is wrong, they push unrelentingly an unholy and unsafe agenda to give these dogs status above a human. The world these dogs were created for is over. That is why people who use them for their intended purpose are found guilty of animal abuse.
Horrible thought it may be for these dogs to have been designed and bred to fight each other, that was their purpose and that is what drives them. This will no doubt piss off the animal rights and the Pit Pushers but it's the truth. The only difference in the people who use these dogs for their intended purpose NOW and the men who created them for fighting THEN, is that back then it was a well-respected 'sport' and the dogs were valued and their well-being was valued, much like a race-horse is valued. The people who use them NOW for dog-fighting are the dregs of humanity and the dregs of the dog world and have no respect nor well-wishes for their dogs. They do their dog-fighting in secret and in shadow because they know it is wrong. The dog-fighters of old DID NOT know it was wrong. They took pride in their sport and that pride showed in how they treated their prize dogs. I am so thankful that we now live in a world where it is KNOWN and ACCEPTED how cruel and wrong dog-fighting is and we want the stiffest of punishments against people who do such.
But, in a nutshell that is is exactly why these dogs no longer fit in in our world. Their world is dead. They have NO PLACE in this world for their killer genes. Except to dog-fighters who will never totally disappear because the dogs they use are the dogs bred for the purpose...Pit Bull and Pit Bull Mixes. As long as this genetic line exists, there will be dog-fighters. Plain and simple. And you bleeding heart animal rights people and you Pit Pushers have condemned these dogs to lives of hell because you are trying to force them to fit in in a world where they do not belong. YOU are NOT 'animal lovers' nor 'Pit Bull lovers'...you are aberrations of the most cruel kind who force life at any cost upon a genetic species that are making life hell not only for the dogs themselves but for every other living creature, human and animal. pit bulls are not in the wrong, you pit pushers and bleeding heart animal rights people are correct in that - don't blame the breed. But I will complete the sentence for you: blame yourselves.
The last attack on Ricky almost cost him his life, again, and ended up also harming his human...an attack by a Pit Bull that is so loved by his female human owner that he spends 99% of his time in a feces and urine-soaked wire cage because he is too vicious to be out in public. But she loves him, so much that his being in her life is all important...to the point that he is an unwilling and unhappy prisoner all the days of his life...
He loves her and the small children that live with him...until his genetics kick in and over-ride his love for his humans and then he will look out from his blood-spattered eyes in confusion when his prey-instincts abate to find one of his young humans that he so loved laying under him, and as he is being led by AC to be euthanized, he will be looking back at his human and wondering what he did wrong. In the year that I have lived next to this long-suffering young Pit Bull I have seen him 5 times. The 4th time was when he attacked me and Ricky when he was being brought out his front door on a leash. He was an it loved... above and beyond all costs by his human jailer.
"But, in a nutshell that is is exactly why these dogs no longer fit in in our world. Their world is dead. They have NO PLACE in this world for their killer genes."
ReplyDeleteamen sister.
that pitbulls still do their grisly work in a modern world is proof that the human psyche is still largely back in the muck and gore of its early creation .
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely powerful, thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe poor sweet baby girl has the same hair as MY baby girl./ I cannot imagine how her mother lived through that. I don't know if I could.
No child should suffer an attack like that, just so people can own a breed of dog.
You are so full of fucking shit.....I had many dogs but our pit was the best...he never attacked abybody...he did get attacked and did beat the hell off the attackers but never wounded them...no blood was drawn. Any dog can be a killer when mistreated. You are just spewing anti american hippie bullshit...fuck off to your communist hell hole, you rotten bastard!
ReplyDeleteJust found your essay while searching for sources for an essay of my own. Very well written and thought out work. Of course it will raise the hackles of Pit fanciers but what you have written is so true.
ReplyDeleteAs exercise, my Chipin runs alongside and I ride my tricycle around town. We have been chased and confronted by pitties, many who are used for fighting, many times. Some of these dogs are very big, but so far they have backed off when I yelled at them. We have had to restrict our activities so much in the last couple of years because of these loose dogs. Now the pits come in my yard on my deck, so I can't even have my dogs outside for very long. My dogs are never off leash.